


Don't String My Heart Along

by voxDei



Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game)
Genre: 1930s era, M/M, Nephilim, Original Characters - Freeform, Vampires, alt pov, romantic (?) teasing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-03
Updated: 2019-03-03
Packaged: 2019-11-08 13:49:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17982254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/voxDei/pseuds/voxDei
Summary: You know how it goes. You try to do your desk job for a criminal syndicate, catch the eye of a passing angelic rogue, and end up falling a little bit in love because he tastes like something old and unknowable, and also because he's so damn forward, who could help it?Then again, Daniel falls a little bit in love with anyone who shows that much interest in him, so that may just be par for the course.





	Don't String My Heart Along

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SouthernGentleMonster](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SouthernGentleMonster/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Honey And Rot](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17640209) by [SouthernGentleMonster](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SouthernGentleMonster/pseuds/SouthernGentleMonster). 



> my boy Daniel's pov of my good good friend's good good fic

He was here just as stenographer, he understood, just someone to take notes and do the calculations to make sure whoever was getting screwed over by this deal was on the other guy’s side. He’d laid claim to the chair closest to the wall, spreading his notes in front of him and waiting for the respective parties to get settled. His employer isn’t here, not in person, but his representatives are quietly menacing enough to give the right impression regardless. His gaze flits around the bar, scanning for anything that might cut the meeting aggressively short, and reassured by the slight weight of his flask inside his coat pocket. 

“Don’t panic,” comes a voice at his ear and he jumps, jarring him out of his thoughts, “they can’t see you.”

“What— I’m right here,” he hisses back at the stranger materialized at his shoulder, a sharp, clever face framed by tousled ginger curls. The stranger raises an eyebrow, and Daniel glances to one of the lieutenants nearest him, sticking out a hand to see if he notices. The stranger grabs his arm to stop him flailing it, but he’d already gotten what he needed. No reaction… illusion magic then, something magically hiding him… but why?

“Who are you?”

“The name is Aeden, and yourself?” Still holding onto his wrist, leaning close. He inhales, startled, and tries not to let his brows knit together from puzzling out the scent this man has. Rotten and sickly sweet, at once.

He coughs, trying to clear his head. “Daniel.”

Aeden pulls him up from his seat, past the frozen negotiators. “Do you know how to dance?”

Daniel blanches. “Is that an excuse to feel me up?” He doesn’t mean to say it so bluntly, but this man has been so forward and startling he can’t stop himself. 

Aeden grins. “Perhaps.” Daniel feels his face heating, opens his mouth to object, but the other man fits his free hand at the small of Daniel’s back. “I find dancing something to distract oneself from nerves, which you are obviously jittering with.” 

Daniel huffs, affronted, but it’s not like Aeden’s _wrong_. He’d been anxious even before some stranger put the whole bar under a spell just to prod at him. It takes him a minute to find his feet in the dance, off balance from Aeden’s abrupt dancefloor abduction. The muscle memory’s still there, though, and he manages without scuffing his partner’s expensive-looking shoes too badly.

“Tell me, Daniel,” Aeden murmurs, moving much more fluidly than Daniel himself, “you’re a vampire, yes?”

“Ah.” Daniel grimaces. “…yes and no. Things just sort of… happened.” He blinks as Aeden’s hand moves to his hip, startlingly intimate, and swallows thickly. The man’s so close, so forward, he’s not used to it.

“Curious. So you’re half in, half out. I’ve never met another half breed before. It would explain the weird haze.” Daniel blinks again, halfway into indignation before the rest of Aeden’s words click into place.

“You’re not all the way human either, then?” He startles as the song changes, a quicker tune that causes Aeden to step to meet it; their chests are nearly pressed together.

“What makes you say that?”

“You… smell different. Like something old, dipped in honey to hide the scent.” He mentally kicks himself, being so blunt about it — what’s _wrong_ with him tonight.

Aeden stops abruptly, making Daniel stumble, and for a hot second he’s afraid he’s offended the stranger, but Aeden keeps him held close, expression pensive. He lets go of Daniel’s hand to trail his fingertips down the clerk’s jawline. This close the scent of him is almost overpowering, and Daniel feels the flush rise in his cheeks. 

His flush gets worse when Aeden cups his face and traces his thumb over Daniel’s lips, slipping the digit inside when Daniel’s mouth falls open. Aeden presses the pad of his thumb against one of Daniel’s lower fangs, deliberate, until red richness blooms on Daniel’s tongue and makes him gasp. It’s an effort not to bite down, shuddering in place, and it’s a tight, tense moment before Aeden takes his hand from Daniel’s face, wiping his cut thumb on Daniel’s lower lip in a provocative gesture. He swallows thickly, licking his lips clean, and marveling at the flavor of the man holding him. _He tastes the same as he smells._

“Why do you feel such shame in yourself, Daniel?”“I’m not ashamed,” he lies, acutely aware of the heat in his cheeks, his gut. 

“Yet you deny a part of yourself even if it causes you suffering. Is that not shame? You have gone far beyond the crossroad of your awakening, you can’t really turn back now.”

“I can try.” His voice sounds petulant even to his own ears, almost sulking. It’s cruel, he decides, cruel of Aeden to stoke his damnable hunger like this. He’s twitchy now, keyed up and sensitive to every movement. Before he can sink further into self-pity, however, Aeden leans down the scant few inches he has on Daniel and pecks him delicately at the corner of his mouth.

“When you change your mind,” he says quietly, stroking Daniel’s cheek, “I’m sure you’ll be able to find me just fine. You’re a smart boy.” And then he releases him, dropping the clerk back into his chair without preamble and whisking away. “Be alert now, I’d be sad if you died.” 

Daniel blinks and folds his arms close to his chest, feeling his own heart fluttering like a whole idiot itself. The spell lifts, a gang lieutenant glancing directly at him and then away, disinterested, and Daniel takes a private moment to remember how to breathe and ignore the warm bodies moving around him at the same time.

He flatly gives up on keeping records this meeting, and he’s not sure his fellows even notice.


End file.
